Godzilla! (found high-quality release of kaiju film; 1977)

The current quality of the film.

Status: Partially Found

Godzilla!, Often called Cozzilla, for its director Luigi Cozzi, is a 1977 colorized version of the 1954 film Gojira, only available for home ownership through TV recordings and bootleg DVDs. No known versions include the ending, although it has surfaced on YouTube, and the "full" version that surfaced online in 2014 was a very low-quality recording that had the text from the end of the reel included in the movie, as it hadn't been run properly.

There are rumors that a high-quality 8mm print surfaced in recent years, but it was never released, and the movie has never had a proper home media release. An old introduction used on TV shows some very high-quality footage, where the colors are actually quite distinct, while most versions of the movie available are quite faded and poorly aged.

The movie spliced in footage from other sources, which is fairly effective at some points but makes it look messy at others. Most of the footage is from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and Godzilla, King of the Monsters. There is also at least one scene from 1955's Godzilla Raids Again, as well as footage from the wars (which does result in actual human death on screen). The base movie does seem to be from King of the Monsters, although there is added footage from Gojira.

It is unlikely the movie will ever receive a restored release, since Toho studios have never mentioned it at any point, and it's unknown if the current owners will release it. It is also notable that side B of the original soundtrack to the movie hasn't been released on CD, although it does appear on a rare EP.

Gallery

• 

  A promo poster for the movie.

• 

  Another example of the low quality of film.

4 minutes of footage from the high-quality release.

An Italian promo exhibiting the Spectrorama 70 coloring process.